In light of the Internet’s outrage over less-than-relevant Rolling Stone‘s choice of U2’s Songs of Innocence as the album of the year, Spotify has released its most popular artists and songs of 2014.
Drumroll…Ed Sheeran (Really? It seems the world has not had its fill of weepy English singer-songwriters yet…) has taken top honors as the most-streamed artist of the year, with more than 860 million listens. His album x has also been streamed more than 430 million times since its release in June.
Based on Spotify’s audience of about 50 million users worldwide, Pharrell Williams also had the last laugh as his track “Happy” was the most streamed song in the world with 260 million plays, so take that hat haters. In the United States, Iggy Azalea took those top honors.
And Katy Perry can continue roaring as she unseats Rihanna to reign as the most streamed female artist of the year. Her Dark Horse was No. 1 for 11 weeks on Spotify’s U.S. Top 50 chart. And Irish singer-songwriter Hozier had the most viral track of the year with “Take Me to Church,” spending 47 weeks on the service’s viral charts.
In 2014, Spotify users listened to more than 7 billion hours of music and created more than 733 million playlists. Not on Spotify yet? No worries. While you can keep streaming for free, if you want to upgrade to its premium service, you can do so in December for 99 cents for the first three months.
There’s no better reason to crank up your tune of choice on Spotify today to get you ready for the GeekWire Gala tonight.
